Burden
by Yoru no Kuronue
Summary: Someone is rounding up the Shinigami for reasons known only to themselves. In this madness, love that would not have been under other circumstances begins to bloom...TsuxTera, HisxTat
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot. I'm lucky to own that.**

**Yoru: This is actually a dream I had.**

**Kuronue: It was kind of creepy.**

**Yoru: But cute and fluffy at the end…the beginning and middle are kind of brutal.**

**Kuronue: If you don't like torture or shounen-ai, this fic is not for you.**

Tsuzuki woke slowly. The ceiling he found himself staring at was not familiar. He winced as he sat up. That person had hit him hard in the ribs, but they were healing quickly. He looked around, to see only a bunk bed, stone walls, and a thick metal door. He didn't have to try it to know it was locked.

He and Hisoka had been kidnapped a few hours ago. He had no idea where his partner had been taken. A bunk bed indicated that this cell was meant for two. Where was his cellmate? There was a powerful ward on the cell; he couldn't summon Shikigami or any of his powers. He sighed as he climbed onto the top bunk. Nothing to do but wait and dream about candy or something...

Hisoka opened his eyes and immediately shot up. He looked wildly about his cell, searching desperately for Tsuzuki. His eyes alighted on a shadowy figure on the top bunk.

"Awake then, Kurosaki?" the figure asked. Hisoka blinked.

"Tatsumi-san?" he asked. Tatsumi jumped down.

"I'm sorry they got you too. Watari and I were arguing about what we pay him for and these men burst in. We didn't even have time to do any spells." Tatsumi sighed as he leaned against the wall. Hisoka looked him over. His hair was mussed, his glasses gone, and his clothes were shredded. Hisoka gulped.

"Uh…ah…yeah. That's pretty much what happened to Tsuzuki and me. Yeah," he stammered, blushing furiously. He hated his hormones so much right now. He sat down hard. Tatsumi arched a delicate eyebrow.

"Are you all right, Kurosaki?" he asked, kneeling in front of Hisoka. Tatsumi placed a cool hand on the boy's forehead, looking deeply into the emerald eyes.

"No fever. What's wrong?" Tatsumi's eyes widened as Hisoka, as if in a dream, leaned up and kissed him. The boy blinked and looked mortified.

"Oh God…Tatsumi-san…gomen…I…" Hisoka scrambled out from under Tatsumi's arm and curled up in the corner. Tatsumi reached up and touched his lips. He hadn't been kissed in a long time. He had been so busy putting up barriers against Tsuzuki.

"Kurosaki…"

"Please forgive me. This isn't the time." Hisoka stood and went to the door. He felt it and pulled at it, knowing it wouldn't give. He just wanted to keep his eyes away from Tatsumi's. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Kurosaki, I assure you I have checked the door. Talk to me. Do you love me?" The question was blunt, but the soft tone used to ask it calmed Hisoka down.

"Y-yes. I have for a long time. But now…" He was cut off by Tatsumi's finger on his mouth.

"Now is as good of a time as any, Kuro…Hisoka."

Tsuzuki was about to fall asleep when the door to his cell opened. He had time to get down and run for it when someone was thrown on top of him. He heard the door slam shut and lock. He pushed the heavy body off. Looking down, he recognized the Shinigami unconscious on the floor.

"Terazuma!" His day couldn't get any worse. His worst enemy sharing a cell with him? Oh well, now he knew how they would escape. He and Terazuma would open their mouths once and that would be the end of the room.

"Unnh…" Terazuma moaned from his prone position. Tsuzuki sighed. Terazuma's brown eyes slid open slowly.

"Where am I?" he asked nobody in particular.

"In a cell. With me," Tsuzuki answered him. Terazuma turned his head and looked at him. His eyes were so out of focus…Tsuzuki started to worry.

"Who…Tsuzuki?" Terazuma struggled to get up, but fell back. Tsuzuki knelt next to him.

"Terazuma, what'd they do to you?" he asked, feeling Terazuma's forehead. Terazuma groaned.

"I dunno…I'm so sluggish…"

"He's been given a drug that will stop him from transforming," came a voice from the door. A woman stood there, her blonde hair pulled tightly into a bun and her gray eyes glaring. Four men flanked her. Tsuzuki stood.

"Who are you? Are you the one who has captured us?" he growled. The woman smirked.

"My name is not important. What's important is that you know your friends are safe. Hisoka Kurosaki and Seichiiro Tatsumi are in a cell together. Yutaka Watari is working on a little…project for us. Not voluntarily, of course," she added at the look on Tsuzuki's face, "He's just come in handy. You and Hajime Terazuma will be spending this time together, though I will be running experiments on Terazuma. For now, good day." She left without another word. Tsuzuki looked down at Terazuma, who had passed out again.

_Experiments?_

Watari heard the door to his prison open and forced himself to keep his eyes on his work.

"Mind you don't mess up, Watari, or your friends will pay the price." The hateful woman leaned over his shoulder.

"I need space, Miss Ukyou," he growled. Ukyou only laughed softly and moved away. Watari continued his work, trying to ignore Ukyou's pacing behind him.

"Such a lovely laboratory they gave you to work in, Watari," she murmured.

"Judging by the fact that I'm chained to my chair, I can't use most of it," he snapped. He grunted as Ukyou's fist slammed into his back.

"We can't have you wandering about, pretty-boy," she snarled. Watari stood, chains clanking.

"Miss Ukyou, if you want me to finish this, I ask that you leave." He flinched as she touched his face.

"If you insist. Get back to work." She tilted his chin down to meet her eyes, "Everything about you is the exact opposite of my dear Muraki. Gold where he was silver. Straightforward where he was subtle. My dear Watari, I do believe that when this is finished, I may fall in love with you…" She growled as Watari snapped his head away.

"Miss Ukyou, I am a happily gay man. Fall in love with me if you wish, but I will never love you. You have taken all of us from what made us ourselves. Please leave now." He turned and sat back down. Ukyou trembled in rage.

"If that is what you have to say, then my experiments on Terazuma will start…immediately."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. Not even the villain, technically.

**Yoru: So…hi. I should probably be in bed right now.**

**Kuronue: Somehow, the fact that you're not doesn't surprise me.**

**Yoru: Shaddap. I'm going to type a little and then go to bed.**

Tsuzuki sighed as he watched Terazuma sleep. He had, with difficulty, placed the bigger man on the bottom bunk and was now waiting for him to wake.

What had the woman meant by experiments? What was so interesting about Terazuma that would be a basis for experiments? It couldn't be the fact that he was a Shinigami; no, she could experiment on any of them if that were the case.

Tsuzuki sighed and rubbed his temples. He was getting a huge headache. He didn't even like Terazuma…suddenly Terazuma groaned on the bed. Tsuzuki, animosity forgotten, was at his side in an instant.

"Where am I?" Terazuma asked groggily.

"You've been kidnapped by a woman who wants to do experiments on you. The rest of us are here too, but I don't know why."

"…Where's Wakaba?"

Tsuzuki stared at him for a moment. He'd just been told that he was going to be a guinea pig and he was worried about Wakaba?

"The woman didn't say anything about Wakaba. Just us, Hisoka, Tatsumi, and Watari."

"Okay. Good." Terazuma's eye slowly focused on Tsuzuki, "What're you doing here?"

"I was thrown in here." Tsuzuki leaned against the bunk, sighing.

"Why?"

Tsuzuki closed his eyes, "Because this is where they threw me."

Terazuma blinked slowly; Tsuzuki was getting worried. Terazuma should have attacked him for that unhelpful answer. What had they given him?

"Terazuma, do you know what drug they gave you?"

"No."

"Well, think about it. You're starting to scare me."

"Why?"

"Because you're acting weird."

"You hate me." Terazuma's calm statement surprised Tsuzuki.

"That doesn't mean I want to see you hurt…by someone other than me." Tsuzuki moved to sit on the bed, putting a hand on Terazuma's forehead gently, "No fever, so it's not infecting you."

"Of course it's not infecting him. It's just keeping him from focusing enough to transform inconveniently."

Tsuzuki looked up. The woman stood in the door, flanked again by four men. He stood quickly, seeing Terazuma attempt to sit up out of the corner of his eye. The other man quickly fell back down.

"Get out of the way. It's time for the first experiment."

"In his condition? Are you crazy?" Tsuzuki suspected that she was, but kept that to himself. No sense in jeopardizing Terazuma further. She'd probably punish the other man for Tsuzuki's cheek.

"Get out of the way, Tsuzuki, or my men will get you out of the way." She took a step forward menacingly. Tsuzuki's eyes darted to Terazuma, who was looking apprehensive even in his drugged state.

"No."

The woman shrugged, and gestured to her men. Three of them suddenly rushed Tsuzuki, slamming him against the wall and effectively holding him there. He fought as the other man approached Terazuma, who tried to move away. Tsuzuki's struggles intensified as the man carelessly threw a weakly squirming Terazuma over his shoulder and turned to leave the room.

"LET HIM GO!" Tsuzuki shouted. Suddenly a manicured hand fixed over his throat and squeezed, causing him to choke.

"You shut up. We'll bring him back when we're done with him. I'm not totally sure whether he'll be recognizable, but that depends on how much he resists. Anyway, another peep out of you and I'll beat him until he's begging for mercy." The woman let go of Tsuzuki's throat, and he coughed a little. The man holding Terazuma waited for the woman to leave the room before following. Right before he disappeared, Terazuma looked up at Tsuzuki.

Tsuzuki had never before seen fear in Terazuma's soft brown eyes, and it made him want to cry.

Tatsumi watched Hisoka sleep in the circle of his arms. It had surprised him for the boy to admit his love, and even more surprising to realize that he returned that love. They should be trying to escape, Tatsumi knew, but he didn't want to wake Hisoka up now.

He heard footsteps outside the door, and looked up. Through the little window in the cell door he saw a severe-looking woman walk by, followed by a big man with someone thrown over his shoulder. Tatsumi blinked. Had that been Terazuma?

He woke Hisoka gently and told him what he had seen. Hisoka's eyes widened.

"But…what are they going to do to him?"

"I don't know. He looked drugged."

"Maybe that's to keep him from transforming." Hisoka's brow furrowed as he thought, "Do you think they're going to do something like that to all of us?"

"It seems to me that we should postpone our romantic urges until we get out of here."

"As much as I hate it, I agree. You start at that wall."

Watari leaned back, exhausted. The heavy chains on his legs clanked as he moved, annoying him greatly. This "project" they had set him on was a hard one indeed. How was he supposed to build a machine that would resurrect the dead?

"Work, Shinigami." A hard blow was delivered to the back of his head. Rubbing it, Watari snarled at the guard towering above him.

"It's hard to work with no food, no water, and no sleep."

"Miss Ukyou says you're to work until she comes in and personally tells you to stop for the day."

"What part of the earlier comment did not clear your thick skull? I'm too tired, you big ape!"

The man hit him again, harder, "Work!"

"No!" Watari made a noise of pain as the man seized his hair and pulled his head back roughly.

"Work, or I'll really beat you up."

Watari considered his options. Work, pretend to work, or refuse and end up black and blue. Grumbling, he picked up a wire and pretended to try and figure out where to put it. His guard smirked and leaned against the wall.

Terazuma pulled weakly against the leather restraints holding him down to the steel table. How had he gotten himself into this mess?

"Stop fighting. You're too weak to break them."

"Lemme go…" Terazuma slurred. He felt so groggy. His voice only grudgingly obeyed him, like a pet that hadn't been given a treat in weeks.

"Not until I'm finished with my experiment, and even then you're going back to your cell, where I have no doubt Tsuzuki will help you recover. Now hold still." The woman held Terazuma's arm down and readied a syringe. Terazuma fought weakly, but he felt the needle slide into his skin anyway. Pain and blackness became his world.


End file.
